13(3 EXPEDITION INTO 



CHAPTER XX. 



THE MATABILI DESCRIBED — ARRIVAL AT THE RIVER 

 SIMALAKATE. 



The history of the assassmation of one of the Hottentot 

 followers of Captains Sutton and Moultry^ to which allusion 

 was made in a former part of this narrative, is hrief. Like 

 most of his tribe, being- unable to keep his hands from 

 picking' and stealing", he purloined a musket from the king"'s 

 kraal j and, presuming" also to aspire to the affections of 

 Truey, Moselekatse's favourite concubine, his body was one 

 morning' picked up pierced with assag"ais. A boy belong-ing" 

 also to one of those gentlemen disappeared about the same 

 time, but his fate and his crime remained equally veiled in 

 obscurity. 



The death of the trader Gibson, which formed one of 

 the reasons adduced by the worthy Missionaries at Moseg"a 

 to dissuade us from prosecuting" our journey, was caused 

 by the insalubrious climate of the country bordering' on 

 the sea-coast. It is the invariable policy of all African 

 chiefs, to deter travellers from visiting' tribes residing* beyond 

 them, by exag-g'erated representations of peril, hoping* by 

 these means to effect a monopoly of traffic. Gibson had 

 long" been engag'ed in trading' speculations, and in hunting' 

 elephants, amongst the tribes in the interior ; and tempted 

 by the prospect of g'ain, penetrated, in opposition to the 

 advice of Moselekatse, among'st the Babariri considerably 

 to the north-west of Delag'oa Bay. There, the whole party, 

 one Hottentot only excepted, was cut off by fever. The 



